Why Worry...about environmental problems and disease?
Environmental problems harm humans, too, not just plants, animals, or the atmosphere. Many of the activities associated with the affluent Western lifestyle lead to environmental problems. Some of these problems, like toxic waste dumps too near human settlements (like the Love Canal incident), in turn affect humans. Regardless of any discussion of the ethics of various environmental issues, sustainability can be viewed as a human health issue.
One such health issue is Emerging Infectious Diseases. Disruptions to ecosystems can cause new diseases to form since different species may be brought closer to each other than ever before. Climate change can also play a role in both the mutations needed for a new virus to emerge.
Emerging Infectious Diseases: An Environmental Problem Caused by Anthropogenic Influences?
Changes in the environment are believed to be one of the causes of Emerging Infectious Diseases (EIDs) like West Nile Virus. Source
The bulk of environmental problems that affect humans are indeed more of a burden on people in poorer areas of the world. However, they affect people in richer countries, too.
Overpopulation brings people and their domesticated animals in closer proximity to various types of wildlife than they were before. This mixing of different species can cause new diseases to form as viruses mutate.
For example, HIV. According to this article, HIV was caused by people eating infected bush meat. While one might imagine that a disease would not have affected people in the wealthier First World countries, clearly HIV has.
The consumption of bush meat is sometimes linked to how wealthy people are. Poorer, more desperate people are more likely to need to consume bush meat that may be contaminated. Richer people will eat bush meat (sometimes as a delicacy), but usually they will not eat animals that are already found dead. An animal that is found dead is much more likely to be contaminated.
EIDs can emerge in wealthier countries, too. Hendra, a zoonotic disease that caused a deadly outbreak in 1994, affected people in Australia (Quammen, 83). It was likely caused by a combination between bats, horses, and people. Horses are not native to Australia and only arrived there recently, so alien species and humans brought together in closer proximity than ever before is what probably caused the disease.
As a result, citizens of wealthier countries need to worry about environmental problems, too, if only for their own health.
EIDs can be viewed as an environmental problem since they were caused by changes people have made to the environment.
If nothing is done about EIDs, it is hard to know what the effects will be. However, it is highly likely that new diseases will emerge if we continue not seriously working to solve this problem.
Considering how serious these problems are (after all, this is people's health that is in danger if we continue our practices), why are we not doing more? One of the problems is that often diseases are not thought at first to have an environmental cause. Zoonotic diseases themselves are often not recognized as even being anything different from older, more well-known diseases. It will often take several years before the source of a novel zoonotic disease is pinned down.
Stakeholders in this issue would include all people (since all may be potentially infected by an emerging disease). In the short term, though, actions that are taken that will increase the risk of a new disease emerging may make economic sense. For example, someone who is starving may need to eat bush meat to survive, but this could have deadly consequences for both that individual and for the whole population.
Solutions could include controlling population growth and spread, and sustainable development initiatives. A smaller population would lessen the need for people to spread into areas once uninhabited and thereby limit their contact with possible new diseases. The migration to rural areas is also problematic since it changes the ecological mix. Lyme disease may have been caused by movement to reforested suburban areas and the new proximity between people, deer, and ticks (Morse, 9). Sustainable development would help people who are currently poor and relying on unsafe sources of food to survive. A better medical system might help to catch the diseases earlier, and discover their origins, but preventing infectious diseases from emerging would be both more environmentally friendly and humanitarian.
Morse, Stephen S. “Factors in the Emergence of Infectious Diseases.” Emerging Infective Diseases, Volume 1, Issue 1, (1995): 7-15.
Quammen, David. "Deadly Contact." National Geographic, October 2007: 78-105.
Environmental problems harm humans, too, not just plants, animals, or the atmosphere. Many of the activities associated with the affluent Western lifestyle lead to environmental problems. Some of these problems, like toxic waste dumps too near human settlements (like the Love Canal incident), in turn affect humans. Regardless of any discussion of the ethics of various environmental issues, sustainability can be viewed as a human health issue.
One such health issue is Emerging Infectious Diseases. Disruptions to ecosystems can cause new diseases to form since different species may be brought closer to each other than ever before. Climate change can also play a role in both the mutations needed for a new virus to emerge.
Emerging Infectious Diseases: An Environmental Problem Caused by Anthropogenic Influences?
Considering how serious these problems are (after all, this is people's health that is in danger if we continue our practices), why are we not doing more? One of the problems is that often diseases are not thought at first to have an environmental cause. Zoonotic diseases themselves are often not recognized as even being anything different from older, more well-known diseases. It will often take several years before the source of a novel zoonotic disease is pinned down.
Stakeholders in this issue would include all people (since all may be potentially infected by an emerging disease). In the short term, though, actions that are taken that will increase the risk of a new disease emerging may make economic sense. For example, someone who is starving may need to eat bush meat to survive, but this could have deadly consequences for both that individual and for the whole population.
Solutions could include controlling population growth and spread, and sustainable development initiatives. A smaller population would lessen the need for people to spread into areas once uninhabited and thereby limit their contact with possible new diseases. The migration to rural areas is also problematic since it changes the ecological mix. Lyme disease may have been caused by movement to reforested suburban areas and the new proximity between people, deer, and ticks (Morse, 9). Sustainable development would help people who are currently poor and relying on unsafe sources of food to survive. A better medical system might help to catch the diseases earlier, and discover their origins, but preventing infectious diseases from emerging would be both more environmentally friendly and humanitarian.
References:
Cunningham, A. A., P. Daszak, and A. D. Hyatt. “Anthropogenic Environmental Change and the Emergence of Infectious Diseases in Wildlife.” Acta Tropica, Volume 78, Issue 2, (2001): 103-116.
"Disease Transmission through Bushmeat?" Internet. Available: http://www.bushmeat-campaign.net/engsite/pdf/disease.pdf. September 9, 2011.
"Hendra." Internet. Available: http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/FastFacts/pdfs/hendra_F.pdf. September 9, 2011.
Morse, Stephen S. “Factors in the Emergence of Infectious Diseases.” Emerging Infective Diseases, Volume 1, Issue 1, (1995): 7-15.
Quammen, David. "Deadly Contact." National Geographic, October 2007: 78-105.
Images:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/bigphotos/90564787.html
http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/09033148-minimising-the-spread-deadly-hendra-virus.html
http://imagesofglobalwarming.org/?p=16
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joiseyshowaa/2402764792/sizes/o/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whartz/2134533707/